


traditions old and new

by pinesboi



Category: The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: Christmas Fluff, M/M, Nile deserves the world, Post-Canon, Team as Family, Ugly Sweaters, booker is not here because he's still busy being sad rat man, extremely fluffy, no beta we die like they don't, written in two hours at midnight
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-26
Updated: 2020-12-26
Packaged: 2021-03-11 03:14:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,283
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28344471
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pinesboi/pseuds/pinesboi
Summary: nile misses christmas time with her family. the rest of the team are determined to make her first holiday season with them the best it can be.based off ofthislovely art by the amazing prose-n-scripts <3
Relationships: Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova
Comments: 3
Kudos: 69





	traditions old and new

It was an accidental purchase. Multiple accidental purchases.

Nile was really the one to blame. Nicky had taken her with him to go shopping- both to stock up on groceries and to find a few gift-like things for the holidays. Neither he nor Joe celebrated Christmas, and Andy was older than Christianity itself, so she’d never found it all that fascinating . However, it was clear by the way Nile stared at the small lights and shining decorations strung up everywhere they went that she was longing for a proper Christmas. She’d told them all many times about her family, the way her mom did as much as she could to make the holidays special.

She was the one to point them out to Nicky as they made their way through the shopping mall- collections of thick, knit sweaters with colorful designs woven in. Nicky notices that they’ve all got very strange sayings or puns stitched in, along with some boisterous character surrounded by candy canes and snow. Now, he’s never had much of an eye for fashion (both Joe and Nile could attest to that), but he’s nearly certain that these don’t pass for the regular “cool” clothes the young immortal wears.

“My mom wears these awful sweaters the whole week leading up to Christmas Day,” Nile explains, eyes glued to the one she’s pulled off of the rack. “She’d always force my brother and I into a couple before we could open any presents, just so she could get pictures.”

She says it all with a smile, but there’s a hurt and a longing that Nicky recognizes all too well. The pain of moving forward, and of leaving things behind. Nile pulls aside another, gaze gone glassy and far away, focused on some memory Nicky has the decency to not ask her about just yet. He places a gentle hand on her shoulder, smiling softly when she turns to look.

“Why don’t you help me pick out a few?”

“Yeah?” Nile does try to hide the excitement in her voice, but her efforts are undone by the way her face lights up.

“Yes. You’re family, Nile. It can’t hurt to bring some of your traditions into the mix.” He chuckles. “Though Andy may draw the line at taking pictures.

“I am totally alright with that. Here, come look at this one!”

This is how they wind up driving home not only with the many bags of groceries, but two that also hold their precious cargo- four absolutely atrocious holiday sweaters. Nile had also insisted upon a headband with a pair of stuffed antlers on it, all wrapped up in felt mistletoe, pushing it onto Nicky’s head with a grin. She had become increasingly aware of his tendency to wear strange or outlandish things with a sincerity and grace that one might think he was wearing it for the style. He gets a great kick out of it and loves to take turns driving Joe and Andy mad.

Nile makes a comment about Nicky getting good use of the mistletoe. While he neglects to respond, he does give her a wry smile. He can recall multiple instances off of the top of his head where he and Joe had been very _creative_ with it, the most recent of which being that particularly fascinating night in Nice, around 2002. It hadn’t come with reindeer horns then, but Nicky was certain he could improvise.

Nile must catch on to his facial expression before he realizes he’s making it, and shakes her head. “No. Absolutely not. Whatever you’re about to say, I don’t wanna hear it.”

Nicky laughs. “Ah, right. What did you call it? “Like listening to an old man talk about his sex life?”

“Yes!” She flails her arms up in the air. “Don’t get me wrong, I love you both and I think you and Joe and amazing. But hearing about the things you get up to in the bedroom feels so _wrong.”_

“Are you sure? I could tell you about that first year we spent in Malta-“

“Nicky! Drive!”

**************************************************

Their safehouse outside of Seattle is a relatively recent acquisition, with it’s first proper use being sometime in the 90’s. It’s not more than a warehouse someone had renovated to be a proper, livable space. At the time, all they had required were bedrooms (it was going to be a long stay, and neither Andy nor Booker wanted to have to share with Nicky and Joe for a whole year), electricity, and a decent kitchen. The bedrooms were cramped and the electricity was spotty, but the kitchen was perfectly functional for their needs.

From the outside, the safehouse was appropriately dreary- grey siding and a yard of even grayer gravel, only two visible windows on the front. On the inside, however, the Guard had worked to make it feel like a home. More specifically, Joe and Andy. It was Nile’s first Christmas with them, and they were going to make it special- or, at the very least, a little less lonely.

It had been Joe and Andy’s job to set up the decorations while Nicky and Nile were out (Nicky had been fairly confident in his ability to lure Nile away with the prospect of shopping and getting to choose the ice cream flavor). Unfortunately, neither Joe nor Andy really knew or understood what Christmas decorations were supposed to look like, aside from the stuff they’d seen passing in stores. The inside of the safehouse looks like an atomic snow globe had gone off. There are little red and yellow-white lights hung up on nearly every surface, including the back of the couch. There are little ornaments hung on wall studs and coat hangers and cabinets, with tinsel taped to the side of the table.

Nile looks at it all incredulously as she steps through the door. “What is all this?”

Joe smiles wide holding tightly to a ladder Andy is balanced on to decorate the tree, a sight that Nicky is happy to welcome as he steps in with a few bags weighing down his arms. “Surprise! Happy Christmas!”

“But- I thought you guys didn’t celebrate?”

“We don’t.” Nicky says softly. “But you do.”

She is silent for a long time, simply staring at all the lights, and the small tree that she has a strong suspicion Andy cut down herself that leans in the corner. From his position, Nicky can see tears forming in her eyes that she blinks to keep at bay. She clears her throat and sweeps her braids all into place behind her head.

“Well, this is perfect.” She says proudly, though still with a wobble to her voice. “Because Nicky and I got gifts for everyone.”

****************************************************8

Nile had picked out most of the sweaters herself, Nicky chiming in when she was in need of a tie breaker. In the end, Joe had gotten a red sweater with the grinch on it, and large orange letters that said ‘naughty’.

(Joe had raised an eyebrow at this, giving Nicky a wink as Nile handed them out)

Andy had been the recipient of a green sweater with the image of Jesus on it, holding a happy birthday sign. She looks at it incredulously, glancing between Nile and Nicky for assistance. “I thought his birthday was in the spring?”

Before they can go down that specific rabbit hole, Nile makes Nicky show off his own sweater- a blue abomination with snowmen around the whole thing, and the words “Snow Cool”. Nicky had thought it was actually quite clever. Nile looked at him with all the pain in her eyes of someone watching an uncle try to navigate social media. Before she lets him forget, she tugs the headband out of the bag and thrusts it towards him, claiming it “completes the look”. Joe catches the mistletoe and grins softly in the way he does, little crinkles forming at his eyes. Nicky should really stop being surprised after 900 years, but somehow he’s still caught off guard by the fluttering in his chest.

Nile’s own sweater is probably the most tolerable of the bunch- though significantly more flashy. Little strings of ornaments and embroidered lights give the illusion of a Christmas tree. She pulls it on and models it with a smile so big Nicky’s worried it could split her face, laughing all the while.

It’s a very calm evening. Nile gives them all a rundown of all the best Christmas movies (firmly denying Rudolph’s place on the list), and manages to get them sat down all the way through at least one. Nicky manages to make a decent meal, mostly consisting of mashed potatoes and a hearty stew he’d been able to whip up quickly, but Nile doesn’t complain. By the end of the night, when everyone has wound down and Nicky is still cleaning up into the kitchen, she wraps her arms around him from the side, resting her head against his shoulder.

“Thank you.” Her voice is so quiet Nicky almost misses it beneath the sound of the sink running. He turns it off and dries his hands so that he can hug her back.

“Always.” He proceeds cautiously. “Did it help at all? With missing your family?”

Nile sniffs. “A little.”

She goes quiet for a long time before she lets the tears come. Even then, they slide down her cheeks silently. “It gets easier, right?”

He nods slowly. “The pain gets further away. Missing those you love is never easy.”

“Good.”

They stay like that for a while, holding each other in the kitchen like there isn’t a care in the world. Eventually, Nicky has to pat her back and separate, giving her a soft smile.

“You should get to bed. Presents in the morning.”

She groans. “And work.”

“Yes, and work,” Nicky laughs lightly. “I love you, little sister.”

Nile’s face breaks open with a grin. “I love you too, old man.”

Nicky waits until she’s retuned to the room she’s sharing with Andy to finish cleaning up. Joe snores softly on the couch, having fallen asleep halfway through the movie after dinner. Once the kitchen is back in order and all the dishes are on the rack to dry, Nicky silently makes his way over to watch his husband sleep.

Joe has always been easy to rest, a man capable of napping nearly anywhere and everywhere. It has become one of Nicky’s favorite pass times, in those many moments where Nicky finds himself awake before his husband, to watch his face as he’s caught in his dreams. The small twitches of his nose, the way his mouth will quirk up in a smile or twist into a frown. He’s asked Joe about his dreams, only to be told that he doesn’t remember many of them.

He does much the same now, though his mouth is hung slightly open. Still, he’s the most beautiful man in the world. Even with tinsel in his dark curls or glitter from the ornaments positively everywhere, or that _horrendous_ sweater, Nicky has never seen a man more perfect in his life.

He thanks whatever powers that are that he gets to have _this,_ somehow. It is a prayer he gives every day, and it never stops ringing less true.

Joe must sense Nicky’s eye upon him, because before long he stirs and yawns, cracking an eye open.

“Is that Saint Nicky? Come to take me and turn me to coal?”

Nicky kneels down next to his husband, pressing Joe’s hand up to his mouth for a brief kiss. “No. Just your love Nicol, who has come to convince you to come to bed.”

He groans and stretches on the couch, reaching his hands toward Nicky. “But the bedroom is so _far,_ hayati. I fear I won’t make it.”

“You have always been a brave soldier, my Joe. You will survive it somehow.”

Joe tosses him a look, one with a glimmer in those night-sky eyes. “Perhaps if my handsome prince were to give me a kiss, I would be encouraged and revitalized.” His gaze flicks up to the antlers on Nicky’s head. “And we _are_ under the mistletoe, after all.”

Nicky sighs. “I suppose I can grant you one kiss. But then bed?”

He only gets a small hum of assent before Joe has his hands cupping Nicky’s face, drawing him in.

They have had many kisses throughout the years. There have been first kisses- tenuous and timid, unsure of how they fit. The desperate kisses, the ones where they feared they might be the final ones. The deep, languid kisses, the kind that sent a fire curling into their stomachs and usually led to longer activities.

But _these-_ the unhurried, the gentle, the perfect kisses- they were by far Nicky’s favorite. Kissing Joe for the sake of kissing him will never lose its splendor.

Joe knows this about him, and also knows it’s the fastest way to get Nicky absolutely boneless, willing to go wherever Joe leads. Which is why, after Nicky has sunk into the kiss and twisted his fingers in Joe’s sweater, he pulls Nicky on top of him on the couch in a pile of tangled limbs. It’s not really big enough for them both, but Joe is able to spread his legs to make room for Nicky’s body, letting his head fall against Joe’s shoulder.

“Joe…”

“Just five minutes,” Joe promises, closing his eyes. “Just let me hold you?”

Nicky has never been able to say no to Joe.

He drifts off not long after, surrounded by Joe and the lingering smell of their dinner. Somewhere outside, distantly, Nicky thinks he can hear sleighbells.


End file.
